AUTHOR: Staff writer
PUBLICATION: businesstech
While South African banks continue to source individuals with financial expertise, skills in information technology (IT), digital technology, and emerging risk advisory, among others, are in high demand in 2023 due to strong digital uptake.
According to Nedbank CEO Mike Brown, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the adoption of the digital economy accelerated rapidly.
In 2022, Nedbank saw a 50% increase in new digital sales, while app transaction volumes increased 239% from pre-Covid 2019. Additionally, Brown noted that Money app active users increased by 157%, and app transaction values increased by 273%.
FNB added that, as of January 2023, contactless payments account for more than 60% of all transactions, while physical card swipes account for less than 1%.
Head of Spend and Customer Value Management at FNB Card, Ashley Saffy, said that consumer preference towards digital banking and smart devices is due to convenience and a higher level of security.
“Contactless is a faster payment method, and it uses near-field communication (NFC) technology, which is less vulnerable to fraud than traditional’ contact’ driven payment methods,” said Saffy.
As a result of the growing digital economy, Nedbank group executive of human resources, Deborah Fuller, told BusinessTech that ongoing regulatory change and changing customer needs increasingly drives the demand for critical new capabilities and skills.
In 2023, FNB, Nedbank, Capitec, and Absa said they are actively looking for the following:
- Multi-Stack engineers;
- System developers and analysts;
- Data Scientists;
- UI and UX Designers;
- Software Test Analysts;
- Quantitative Analysts;
- Actuaries; and
- Cyber Risk Specialists
Fuller added that it would be advantageous to job seekers to have experience in critical skills regarding the above mentioned positions, which include:
- Digital and emerging technology;
- Data and analytics;
- Multi–stack development skills – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud, Machine Learning (ML), and blockchain;
- User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) skills;
- Actuarial and predictive analytics skills; and
- Emerging risk advisory skills – such as cyber risk, climate risk and open banking risk, amongst others.
However, despite digital innovations, banks are still financial service providers requiring finance expertise and skills relevant to their branch and corporate real estate operations.
“We are continuously looking for energetic client-driven individuals to support our branch and service support centres,” said Capitec.
Therefore, banks are also actively looking for the following:
- Chartered Accounts (CA)
- Bankers
- Credit Managers
- Customer Service Consultants
- Investment bankers
- Branch and relationship managers
With these skills and qualifications in demand, FNB human capital executive, Donald Khumalo, noted that, although newly hired personnel varies year-on-year, FNB had hired 2,000 new permanent employees in 2022.
Fuller added that Nedbank had hired 1,000 new employees, and an Absa spokesperson revealed the group hired an estimated 8,000 new personnel in 2022 – including contract and contingent employees.
Capitec also noted a recruitment average of around 1,629 new personnel per annum.
Adding to the growing recruitment numbers, All three banks added that they are talent retentive and focus on growing the job opportunities of existing employees.
“There is a significant investment in reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce with critical skills needed to provide career growth opportunities, minimise job losses and build a flowing pipeline of talent in the long term,” said Fuller.
In 2023, she added that Nedbank is also focused on the Youth Employment Service (YES) to contribute to curbing the high youth unemployment rate by mentoring and nurturing young talent and allowing them to obtain valuable work experience.
To view all the vacancies available in 2023, Nedbank, Absa, and FNB encourage job seekers to visit their respective careers pages.
Amendment to the Gazette